House restores local zoning over solid-waste facilities

Is skipping the normal vetting process the best way to correct a legislative mistake made six years ago? By a vote of a 120 to 8, the state House of Representatives declared Thursday night that it was.

The House approved and sent to the Senate an "emergency-certified" bill that restores local regulatory control over solid-waste facilities, a reaction to a court ruling in November in a Milford case involving a legislator's husband.

Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford

The emergency designation means that the bill never received the normal review by legislative committees, nor was it subject to a public hearing.

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"Why the rush?" asked Rep. Sean Williams, R-Watertown. "It can't at least wait a couple of days to have people heard?"

The quick action was prompted by the pending the approval of permits for the expansion of Recycling, Inc.'s waste facility in Milford, a project opposed by city officials.

But a Superior Court judge ruled in November that the legislature pre-empted local regulatory control in a law passed unanimously by the General Assembly in April 2006. After the ruling, the city hired the law firm of David A. Slossberg, the husband of Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford.

The Slossberg connection prompted some grumbling among Republicans during the debate, but few legislators were willing to vote against a bill the restores some zoning authority over waste facilities.

"It appears to me this bill is trying to do the right thing for the wrong reasons," said Rep. John Shaban, R-Redding. He voted for a Republican amendment that would have restore local control only for new facilities, not existing ones. It failed 83 to 47.

But Shaban was not among the seven Republicans and one Democrat, Patricia Dillon of New Haven, to vote against passage of the bill.

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